Pearce 'not ready' for England

[Jack Fulham]

Stuart Pearce has ruled himself out of succeeding Fabio Capello as England manager, by admitting he doesn't have enough experience for the job.

Former Manchester City boss Pearce has been part of the England set-up for the past four years and is one of Capello's assistants and head coach of the Under-21 side.

The former England left-back, who will be 50 when Capello's contract expires after the European Championship finals, is set to be appointed manager of the Great Britain men's football team at next summer's Olympics.

But he insisted today he did not yet have the credentials for the biggest sporting job in the country, telling talkSPORT: "At this stage, I don't have the experience for the job.

"I believe it's maybe a job for an older man who has got more experience.

"At this moment in time, I have managed Manchester City, had a brief spell at Nottingham Forest, and the under-21s.

"If you amass all the games there, it is less than 200 matches. For me, there is not enough experience there."

Pearce's stock rose after he led the England Under-21 side to three successive European Championship finals, reaching the semi-final in 2007 and the final two years later.

His reputation took a hit after their dismal display in Denmark this summer but he went on to sign a new two-year contract.

He added: "I am enjoying what I am doing and whoever the next man is through the door when Fabio leaves, I will obviously give him as much support as he needs from me, or I can give him, to help him do his job to the best of his ability."

The Football Association have eased back from their previous insistence Capello's successor would be English, although there remains a clamour in some quarters for that to be the case.

Pearce said: "I can quite understand one or two people's sentiment that possibly I should be pitching in for an opportunity to do this job. I just feel as though it's not the right time at the moment.

"As I see, very, very often, people get elevated very quickly and written off very quickly.

"For me, it's not the right time to put my name in the hat.

"I'm gaining experience and I'll be a better candidate in a few years time, I hope."

Pearce 'not ready' for England | News

 

[Dunc]

Think he needs more time, would rather he went into club management for a bit before taking the England job, so he can get used to dealing with older players, who may have bigger egos.

 

[CJ]

Good, don't like his style of football at all.

From an article about Tom Carroll.

'The England youth coaches had Sherwood jumping out of his seat at the club's training ground when he mentioned Carroll's name as one to watch.

"They said 'Tom who?'," Sherwood said. "That's not right. They should be going out and watching games. But then you just have to look at the England Under 21s and see they have got three centre halves playing in midfield. They are powerful boys but you need a bit of both, a bit of a ballplayer. Carroll played against Stoke and they couldn't lay a glove on him."

 

[CJACKO11]

I think he needs more time at a club to be honest. All he has really done is manager the U21's sometimes good sometimes bad so i wouldnt even put him down on the shortlist for next manager. If England really want to improve and go forward then one man stand out and that is Mr Guus Hiddink.